Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and the like. These wireless networks may be multiple-access networks capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available network resources.
A wireless communication network may include a number of base stations or NodeBs that can support communication for a number of user equipments (UEs). A UE may communicate with a base station via downlink and uplink. The downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the base station to the UE, and the uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the UE to the base station.
The UE may attempt to connect to the base station by transmitting a connection request on the uplink. If a connection failure is received on the downlink in response to the connection request, the UE may continue to transmit additional connection requests. The transmittal of the additional connection requests increases the congestion of a communications network.